 |
Osseo United
Methodist Church > MINISTRIES >
Mission Jamaica |
Putting Faith into Action
Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all
your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Mark 12:30-31
Mission Jamaica is a short-term mission opportunity that provides a way for us to love and serve our neighbor as Jesus taught us through his love and service to others. The Mission Jamaica trip combines a service project with time for reflection and spiritual rest. It allows a person to experience an international mission field that is close to home, yet far enough away to immerse into another culture for a week. Our first trip with Mission Jamaica was in 2005.
Where do we go and what do we do?
Mission Jamaica allows people with varied skills and talents to participate. Activities range from pouring cement to reading to a child. Medical and dental personnel use their skills and knowledge to serve the Jamaican community.
|
|
Montego Bay Area
Westhaven Children's Home - We have served at Westhaven each year we have traveled to Jamaica. As a home to 81 handicapped children with varying degrees of abilities, Westhaven has need for on-going projects including gardening, construction, sewing, caring for the children, and assisting the Westhaven staff. Mission Jamaica missionaries continue building the fifth cottage at Westhaven for the older children who live there. We have gotten to know the children and staff at Westhaven. It has been a blessing to watch them grow and change over the years and watch the structural improvements each year that the Mission Jamaica missionaries have worked on. Our team helped constructed a drinking fountain outside so the children can help themselves to water. Our team also helped with roofing the fifth cottage which is under construction. We also helped tile the patio of Cottage 3 and helped with custom building KariAnn a special wheelchair. After she sat in her new chair she could sit upright and look out to everything instead of only looking up to the sky.
Place of Safety – Now closed for renovation. Place of Safety is next to Westhaven Children’s home and houses approximately 75 boys ages 7 to 17. A combination juvenile delinquent facility and orphanage, POS and MJ will be developing a helping ministry for the boys. Work will continue on the Tilapia Fish Farm project this year at the POS. Recently a brand new woodshop was also added to the POS.
Copse Basic School - Preschool up to kindergarten, daycare and child development center. MJ will perform classroom ministry, puppet ministry and Bible school. These children are from the community and must wear uniforms. If they don’t have a uniform they cannot attend school.
St. John’s Medical Clinic – Part of St. John’s Methodist Church. This facility serves the Montego Bay area providing free medical and dental health care. We have participated in the free medical clinic and attended church with our brothers and sisters in Christ at St. John’s Methodist Church in Montego Bay.
The Mission Jamaica Team is back from Westhaven Children's home,
the Boy's place of safety.
If you would like to be part of this exciting mission, please
contact the church office.
|
|
